sack of potatoes if Candice hadn’t grabbed her. The other woman seemed superglued to Wystan’s surging back. She rode like a pregnant Valkyrie, jaw set, eyes fixed on Diana and Callum’s cabin.
Wystan’s hooves kicked up great sprays of snow as he skidded to a halt. The front door lay ten feet from the cabin, blown clean off its hinges. A wide, blackened starburst scarred the porch. Wisps of smoke rose from the charred wood.
“Diana!” Candice yelled. “Diana!”
“I’m okay.” Diana stood square in the shattered doorway, face pale but determined. She had her hands upraised, as though in surrender—but electric light crackled around her fingertips. “Beth’s asleep inside. Are there any more out here?”
“Any more what?” Darcy asked.
“Demons.” Diana’s voice shook, but her glowing hands were steady. “One just tried to break in.”
“A demon?” Candice jumped off Wystan’s back. Darcy followed, considerably less gracefully. “Here? Are you sure?”
Diana gestured at her smoking porch. “I caught it seeping under the front door like evil fog. It was starting to solidify into the shape of a horned serpent when I blasted it. Thank God I was awake. I’d just gotten up to see what all the yelling was about.”
“Joe,” Candice informed her. “He had a vision. Though he saw the Thunderbird setting fire to the base.”
“And now I guess we know why,” Darcy said, eying the black streak outside Diana’s doorway. “I thought Wystan’s wards were supposed to keep these things out.”
Wystan shifted back to human form, revealing an expression of deep alarm. “They are. Only people that I’ve explicitly granted permission should be able to cross. And I would be able to tell if anything had managed to break through. This isn’t possible!”
“Tell that to the demons,” Rory said from behind them. “Two went after Buck as well.”
He and Edith had the Superintendent between them, supporting him. Blood covered one side of the Buck’s face, and he swore under his breath with every limping step. It was the first time Darcy had ever heard him use actual curse words.
“Are you all right, Buck?” Diana said in alarm.
“Fine,” Buck grunted through gritted teeth. He waved off Wystan as the paramedic attempted to examine his head wound. “Turns out bullets do a sweet lot of fuck all against those smoky bastards. Had to pitch myself out the window to avoid getting bit.”
“Didn’t quite get there in time to catch him,” Rory said, grimacing. “Got the demons though. Claws do work. Wystan, how the hell did these things get in?”
“No time for that,” Joe panted, rejoining the group as well. Blaise was with him, unlaced boots flopping on her feet, a turn out jacket hastily thrown over a pink tank top. “The demons will draw the Thunderbird, that’s why I saw it setting fire to everything! We have to get out of here!”
“Joe!” Diana screamed without warning. “Duck!”
Joe didn’t waste time asking why. He threw himself to the ground, dragging Blaise down with him. Massive, fanged jaws clashed shut where their heads had just been. Darcy got a single terrifying glimpse of a serpent bigger than a man drawing itself up to strike again—and then Diana shoved her aside.
The curvy, soft-looking woman faced down the horned serpent without a trace of fear. She brought her hands together in a single, sharp clap.
BOOM
The shockwave knocked Darcy clean off her feet. She shook her head, dazed, and discovered that most of the others were flat on their butts too, thrown down by the force of that deafening thunderclap. Nothing remained where the serpent had been but a drifting thread of smoke.
Diana staggered, catching herself on the side of the cabin. She’d gone a sickly gray color as though whatever she’d done had drained her.
“I can’t keep this up,” she gasped. “Joe’s right, we have to go before the Thunderbird gets here!”
“Like hell I will,” Buck snarled. “I’m not letting that overgrown oven ready chicken incinerate my home again!”
Before anyone could argue, a cold hiss sounded from the dark. More hisses answered it, curling around them from every direction. Pairs of glowing red eyes opened in the night, alight with malice.
“We’re surrounded!” Blaise yelled.
“Wystan, Joe, with me!” Rory barked. “Everyone else into the cabin! We’ll hold them off!”
“I can fight,” Blaise started, but Joe cut her off.
“You aren’t mated.” He thrust her behind him, shielding her with his much larger body. “Without a mate bond to protect you, a demon will be able to possess you instantly if it gets its teeth into you. And then we’d have